5.4 Occupational health and safety

At Nutreco, we care about the health, safety, and security of our employees, contractors, visitors, and the communities in which we operate. We are committed to promoting a safe working environment of continuous improvement, trust and mutual collaboration.

Health and safety has a central position in our business and our ways of working. We operate a dedicated Global Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) Centre of Expertise to lead and support this important priority across the company and have launched many activities in recent years to promote the right leadership behaviours and control operational risks.

To help prevent accidents and work-related illnesses, Nutreco has developed its NuSAFE principles, a set of policies, manuals, and standards based on four elements:

  • Visible Felt Leadership

  • A knowledgeable and competent workforce

  • A well-designed and maintained workplace

  • Safe behaviour

Our progress

In 2022, we implemented many of the activities kicked off in 2021 when we put in place a new HSE structure, teams and management. In line with our NuSAFE 2024 RoadMap, in 2022, Nutreco mainly focused on the principles Visible Felt Leadership and a knowledgeable and competent workforce.

Visible Felt Leadership

Visible Felt Leadership starts from the top; management’s actions lead people at all levels to understand and “feel” their leaders’ high standards and expectations and accept their strong commitment to safety as genuine, caring and respectful.

In 2022, 207 of the Senior Leadership Team and senior managers completed 12 hours of training on “Leadership Through Safety,” delivered by Dr. Andrew Sharma – RMS Switzerland. This was the prerequisite to validate and launch our NuSAFE HSE Policy globally. We currently have 9,784 (or 96% of) employees trained on this policy.

A knowledgeable and competent workforce

A capable organisation invests in its workforce, ensuring that employees have the right skills and knowledge to perform their activities safely and efficiently.

Speaking the same language and understanding each other’s roles and responsibilities is a foundation for a healthy HSE culture. In 2022, Nutreco delivered over 22,000 hours of HSE-related training.

 

  • 257 general managers, plant managers, operational managers, and maintenance managers completed a 20-hour Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) Managing Safety certification.
  • 89 of our HSE professionals completed 100 hours of training to receive their National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health (NEBOSH) International General Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety.
  • 1,674 employees trained in dust and explosion prevention.
  • 1,203 employees trained in life-saving rules.

These programmes will continue in 2023 and be a part of the on-boarding of new hires.

A well-designed and maintained workplace

The most effective design processes begin at the earliest opportunity during the conceptual and planning phases of a workplace. This is where
it is possible to find ways to prevent hazards and incorporate effective risk-control measures and efficiencies.

In 2022, we deployed our planned dust explosion prevention program by auditing 27 factories. Based on the outcomes of the audit, we have now launched a three-year CAPEX investment plan to upgrade our production equipment and reduce the risk of dust explosion in our operations worldwide. We have also enhanced and deployed high-risk activities standards: Material Handling, Hazardous substances, and Lock Out, Tag Out, Try Out (LOTOTO). HSE is now entirely integrated into new investment projects and our Operational Excellence program.

Safe behaviours

To change a safety culture requires both awareness and desire. At Nutreco, we have put significant effort into enhancing our reporting culture on lagging accidents, but also promoting proactive reporting and recognition when right behaviours are demonstrated. As a result, our reporting penetration rate increased significantly from 35% to 76%, and the number of proactive reporting (Hazard identification & Recognition), climbed sharply from 0 to 8,122 reports, reaching 0.66 reports per full-time employee (FTE) during the year. (Target: 0.5).

Nutreco HSE at a glance: 2022 vs. 2020

Our efforts to enhance our reporting culture and transparency have, as expected, resulted in an increase of our Total Recordable Frequency (TRCF) and Potential Serious Injury/Fatality (PSIF) rates. We have also improved the reliability of our data through our IT integration programs. During 2022, we reached a plateau at a TRCF of around 1.9. We expect to see an improvement trend in 2023.

The increase in PSIF and TRCF rates is mainly driven by a more transparent reporting culture and more convenient methods of reporting.

Chapters:

5.1 Diversity and inclusion
5.2 Community development
5.3 Key partnerships
5.4 Occupational health and safety